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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00003 Oct 2005

 
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SRIMATEH RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA


--------------- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ramanujam Varada 
Srinivasa Thatta" <acharyatvsr@xxxx> wrote:


> The name "Ayya" itself should have been derived from ARYA in 
Sanskrit to 
> address an exalted person (not to be confused with word Aryas and 
Dravidas 
> as used by Christian and Marxist historians to divide and rule). 


> Even the word "Ayyar" or "Iyer", which is the title used by Tamil 
speaking 
> Vaideekas, should be a distorted form of "Aryar".
> I personally feel that the titles have more mundane origins rather 
than some 
> deep philosophical origins.
> Regards,
> Ramanujam.
> 
-------------------------------------

Some more inputs from my little understanding of Tamil.
There is a sutra for Aryar in Tamil 
"aaryar mlehchar nallOr enbathu idai-ch-cholaavaam/
aariyE kadhavu chozhan azhagodu mEnmaikkum pEr//

By this it is stated that Aryar are mlechchar, foreigners. Also means 
good people. This is a clear indication to Aryar being different from 
Tamil people. But the term has been used with 'aan' idai-ch-chol 
(middle term)like aaryaan to denote people who are good natured. That 
is in writing, it is not 'aaryanai' or 'aaryanukku. It is 'aaryAnai' 
or aaryAnukku'. But this word has not been used anywhere to denote 
Brahmins or vaidiks or learned persons. It is only to denote people 
who did not belong to the Tamil country. This shows that they have 
referred to only the aryans in the north of Vindhyas.

But there is a root word 'aari' in Tamil, which is the other name for 
Chozha king and to any one who was great. Here also there has never 
been any specific refernce to Brahmins.

In contrast,Aiyar has 'ai' root denoting chief or respectable person 
(I have covered this in my previous mail on this topic)which when 
connected with 'an' or 'ar' vighuthi to denote respect to the person 
became aiyan or aiyar(like ai+an= aiyan. ai+ ar= aiyar)

Aiyan was originally (in olden texts)used to denote Lord Iyappan, 
while resepctable persons were addressed to as 'ai' only. In course 
of time, ai+ an = aiyan came into usage (poetry, prose and 
colloquial) and used to denote anyone who was respectable and 
deserved to be worshipped. That is how this word came to mean god as 
well as learned Brahmins. Aiyan was used as aiya and aiyanE in 
address in II person.

As you said, the term had been of mundane relevance and not of 
philosophical, which was only later attributed (the  5 attributes). 
This is proved by the 'punarchi' vidhi of Tamil grammar which has 
rules for how words are  to be joined. For numbers like 1, 2, 3 etc, 
the rules are different. For instance if the term Iyengar were to 
have originated from aindhu (no 5), it would have  been ainkaar not 
iyENgar, for the word aindhu becomes ain as in ainthiNAi (aindhi + 
thiNAi), ainkurunooru (aindhu + kurumai + nooru), aimpaal (aindhu + 
paal), aimpori (aindhu + pori) etc. But that the  word has 'iyan' 
shows that the derivative is not from aindhu (no 5), but from iyan.

If we were to say that it was aindhu + kaaryam  or aindhu + angam, 
then by grammar rule (which decides the way that such combinations 
occur)it will be aingaaryam and aindhangam. Clearly, no 5 can not 
have become the root of Iyengar. The 'an' vighuthi only makes the 
difference.If it still be assumed that no 5 had been the basis, then 
the other questions arise as to who coined this term and  when - 
which need to be answered.

Regards, 
jayasree saranathan







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azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
 
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